Cablegram 25 CANBERRA, 2 February 1945
TOP SECRET
Your D. No. 44 [1], paragraph 8, membership of World Organisation.
1. The basis of selection of founder members of the World Organisation may provide a solution for some of the difficulties now arising in regard to the launching of that body. If original membership were limited to the United Nations or to those countries which have actively participated in the war as United Nations that in itself might outweigh the Soviet fear of being outvoted, the danger of a South American block vote demonstrated at the Aviation Conference and problems relating to composition of the Security Council. It is not unreasonable that countries which have borne the brunt of the war should have a leading voice in establishing the Organisation and particularly in the composition of the Security Council.
2. We note that you are inclined to support the inclusion of Turkey as a member. on that footing there seems to be no reason for the exclusion of Eire. Eire is either a neutral country completely separated from the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth or else it is still a member of the British Commonwealth possessing the same external sovereignty as Canada, etc. In either event it should be entitled to original membership of the proposed organisation if other neutral countries are included. [2]
3. We repeat that it is unwise to consider this matter in isolation from the other questions affecting World Organisation.
It is plain that there is a close connection between the problems of:-
(a) Qualification for original membership of the Organisation;
(b) The Canadian proposal for weighting the voting in the Assembly;
(c) Qualifications for and method of selecting Members of Council;
(d) Soviet claim for unanimity of Council decisions; and (e) The Soviet claim for separate representation for the constituent Republics.
These problems cannot be solved piecemeal.
_
1 Document 6.
2 Cranborne replied on 9 February that, unlike Eire, Turkey had broken off diplomatic relations with Germany and Japan. See cablegram D246 on file AA:A1066, H45/765.
_
[AA:A1066, H45/765]